The bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures elected Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff as its vice president during an annual summit held earlier this month in Boston. The one-year term puts Duff on track to become the group’s president in 2027. The NCSL serves more than 7,000 state lawmakers and 30,000 legislative staff across the nation. The group elected…| Capitol Dispatch
As Republican-backed tariff policies drive up the price of consumer goods, Connecticut residents will get a slight cost reprieve beginning Sunday when the state launches its annual sales tax holiday on clothing and footwear priced at less than $100. The sales tax-free week will run through next Saturday, Aug. 23, and exempts most clothing and shoes under the $100 cost…| Capitol Dispatch
The closing of Sacred Heart University's multicultural, sexuality and gender equity centers in Fairfield this month is just the latest of dozens of campus community centers appealing to certain demographics of students being mandated to close under new federal guidelines. CT Insider reported Aug. 11 that Sacred Heart's centers will close, with university President John J. Petillo saying in a…| Capitol Dispatch
At least twice in the last month, Connecticut grocery store chain owner Stew Leonard Jr. has appeared on national television to discuss how the Trump administration’s tariff policies were driving up the cost of essential goods. Leonard Jr. operates Stew Leonard’s grocery stores in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. He has already sent newsletters to shoppers informing them of…| Capitol Dispatch
Democrats at the state, local and federal level rallied Monday behind a group of Avon residents, who formed a tenants union in an effort to negotiate safer living conditions from their out-of-state, corporate landlord. Members of the new Avon Place Tenant Union staged a mid-morning press conference to detail a litany of complaints about the management of the roughly 180-unit…| Capitol Dispatch
The long-term impact of anti-abortion restrictions on regional health care is becoming more apparent, including through a significant new policy change that could harm members of the armed forces. A recent anti-abortion decision from the Veterans Affairs Department, rolls back a 2022 policy, enacted under President Joe Biden, which offered abortion services to military veterans who needed to terminate a…| Capitol Dispatch
As Connecticut officials celebrated the passage of a comprehensive policy to bring down prescription drug prices, Republican President Donald Trump made news for repeating widely mocked claims about his record on pharmaceutical costs. Newsweek reported Monday that Trump had continued to promote the mathematically impossible assertion that his administration had reduced prescription drug prices by more than 100%. The news…| Capitol Dispatch
State officials and advocates for Connecticut patients gathered in a crowded Hartford pharmacy last week to celebrate a new state law, intended to reduce the cost of prescription medication through a series of recommendations from a coalition of experts, legislators and providers. The Wednesday event at Arrow Pharmacy served to mark the signing of House Bill 7192, a wide-ranging proposal…| Capitol Dispatch
